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Ironnica is one of our top Supervisors in the areas of Chemistry and Math. He has a special talent for chemistry in particular and is currently doing a PhD in the subject, and he is just 25 years old! To pay his way through school, he bartends and he also works with undergraduate students at University. On our site, he is an AnswerThon winner in Second Place, and a member of the Mentoring Program and Vandal Patrol. He is also a Category Supervisor in Math and Arithmetic and Chemistry and related areas. At over 26, 000 contributions, he is already a Gold Contributor. It is an honor to have Ironnica helping out on our site! Read more and get to know this young Irishman.

I asked a question about a guitar that I wanted to buy, the Jackson WRMG. It has a very unusual shape and I wanted to know if it would fit into a normal sized soft guitar bag. Somebody actually checked their guitar and let me know that it did. From there, I answered a few questions while in my first year of college and later I was asked to join the Premier Answerers Facebook page. That was a very nice touch. Following that, the community of people on the site made it somewhere that I wanted to stay. There are a lot of lovely people here.

I like answering questions. I’ve recently been working through a few key words, mainly on unit conversions, as a means to clean the backlog up. I could try to guess alternative wording for answers in the hope of slotting an answer in, but for the majority of these questions, they require a one sentence answer, and it is far more efficient to just answer them. When I started, I used to look up the answers to questions I had a vague idea about, and I learned a lot of random things myself through that method. I used reliable sources so I do not fear that the info was incorrect!

What is the most daring thing you’ve ever done?

The move from an institute of technology (IT Carlow) to university was daring. I didn’t come from a house with vast amounts of money, but I knew from my time in Carlow that chemistry was my calling and that I would have been at a disadvantage if I didn’t take the plunge.

What is your favorite type of music? What is your favorite band or artist?

Andy McKee

I used to be into heavy metal and some power metal, hard rock, punk and a random mix aside from that. I have gone now drifted towards pop punk and listen to Less than Jake, The Offspring, Blink 182, Bad Religion, Lars Frederiksen, Bouncing Souls, Fight Like Apes and Dead Cat Bounce. Two legends of music that I’ll always hold very dear are Andy McKee (double hand tapping acoustic) and Ludovico Einaudi (Italian composer and pianist). I’ve been very lucky to see both and they gave incredible shows.

What makes you unique?

I am a very honest person, and if I’m not being honest, I have good reason not to be. I am not religious, but I do live by a loose idea of karma. I have been very lucky in life to get where I am, which encourages me to continue this way and to keep in mind who may be affected by my actions or lack of them.

What are you most passionate about in your life?

I am most passionate about chemistry, and as of late, inspiring younger minds by explaining things in ways that I wish had been told to me. I have always been passionate about my three nephews and my niece and I hope to be there for them whenever they need me in the future.

Who or what is your inspiration in life?

I don’t need to look far in my life for inspiration thankfully. My girlfriend, Andrea is a rock, and a very intelligent, capable and highly motivated individual, and to put up with me is something to be admired on its own.

My dad and sister have always offered me help. My dad has provided me with any tools that I have needed in life, and has done his level best for me. I have quite a few aunts and uncles who are there to give support whenever needed, in particular, my uncle Eamonn who is a Catholic priest. He (and others) has looked out for me and we get on remarkably well, considering I am an atheist. He respects that, and it goes unmentioned.

Do you view the glass ‘half full’ or ‘half empty’? Why?

I am a half empty type of person, a bad habit. Doing research is an absolute roller-coaster that has you picking yourself up a few times a week. That’s where the forced optimism comes in, and the “ah sure, it’ll be grand” line.

What life accomplishments are you proud of?

I won the 2009 Eurachem Analytical Measurement Competition in Ireland. I was selected as one of five IT students to represent Ireland at the 2008 London International Youth Science Forum. I got a side qualification in quality assurance while attending Carlow IT. I finished top of class in my undergraduate degree. Also, I never dreamed that I could have the opportunity to do a PhD, and for getting here (a long road to go yet) I am proud no matter what lies ahead in the future.

Anything else?

Not so much a question, but I have to thank the Answers team for the opportunity to enter the recent AnswersThon and for being the lovely people that they are. They have provided a platform of free education. I am also thankful to Sal Khan of Khan Academy, Wikipedia, and the infinite amount of freely available educational resources on the Internet. We really live in a knowledge-rich environment with all these media available at our fingertips. With proper dedication, anyone can succeed, with the right tools already in place.

I noticed that many questions in the Judaism categories are either unanswered or have answers that are incomplete or inaccurate. I feel it is important that Judaism should be written about in a way that gives voice to our Torah heritage, replete with sources from Talmud, Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and halakha (Torah-law), wherever applicable. I also feel that those who are posting questions are interested in seeing a traditional Jewish viewpoint in the answer, not a watered-down version.

What life accomplishments are you proud of?

I am proud of learning the Tanakh and several Talmud tractates (volumes) with their commentaries.

KrazE1 has been on the site for just about a year now and already she is making her mark! She was a Runner Up in the Sizzlin’ Summer AnswerThon, and she’s already a graduate of TIP, our premier program that trains members to become Supervisors on the site. Off the site, KrazE1 is an expert on freshwater fish. She loves coffee, and her naps…caffeine apparently doesn’t interfere with her sleep! Read more to learn about this Gold Contributor!

I had been looking for a fish item online to purchase, and I noticed a question and answer for the site.

What enticed you to join our community?

When I first entered the site, the question I came upon had incorrect information regarding goldfish. I couldn’t possibly ignore it, so I just had to join to edit the response. Then I found even more questions about goldfish that needed answers, and I’ve been here ever since.

That would have to be a Calico Ribbontail. It is a type of goldfish, but it has very long fins which exceed its body in length. It almost looks like Linus dragging along his comfort blanket when it swims.

Goldfish actually grow quite a bit when they are given the recommended amount of space and care. The fish in the picture is named Spot, and he is just over 5 years old. I am just barely holding him in my hand, so you can appreciate his size.

Natural Val is a knowledgeable health care professional who we are lucky to have on the site. His teaching background makes his answers easy to understand and he loves to share his knowledge. On the site, you will find him as a Mentor, Senior Supervisor and Silver Contributor. Offsite, he is a man of many talents: graphic artist, photographer and mountain climber – and he has some awesome stories about survival in the wilderness. Check out Valentin’s interview to learn more about this intelligent and dedicated contributor.

What is your first name?

My first name is Valentin, pronounced Valenteen. Most people call me Val because it’s easier to say. I would like to think that my parents named me after the three Roman Emperors named Valentinius, but since they were silent movie buffs, they were probably thinking of Rudolph Valentino.

What is your occupation?

Pantheistic Symmetryby Valentin

I have had a few different careers associated with either photography and graphic arts or allied health care like massage therapy, and now nursing. And, since I am so much of a people person, I consider myself as being mostly a health sciences educator.

I have always loved nature and the great outdoors. I was teaching at a massage therapy school in North Carolina when I first joined Answers.com. The name of the school was the Natural Touch School of Massage. I liked the name so much that I incorporated the word ‘natural’ into many of my usernames. And so, for WikiAnswers Natural Val was a natural choice. Pun intended.

Where in the world do you hail from and what makes that place special?

I come from what is now known as Serbia-Montenegro. When I was born there it was called Yugoslavia, but in Europe a person takes on ethnicity and cultural affiliation from one’s heritage and one’s parents, and not according to the borders where one is physically born. My father is Romanian and my mother, Hungarian so I was a misfit because that was considered a mixed marriage. Because of a difficult political situation, my family, which included my parents and my older sister, Ofelia, immigrated to the United States when I was five years old.

My proudest accomplishment is being polyglottic and that means lots of glotts, which is the Latin word for tongues. I have learned to speak seven languages throughout my life. Five of those I learned to speak with native fluency by the time I was six years old. In order, they were: Hungarian, Romanian, Serbian, Italian, and American English. It was later that I learned conversational levels of French and American Sign Language (ASL); more like what people call their second language, only they were my sixth and seventh. I even taught ASL and English reading and writing skills to deaf adults at the Deaf Community Center of San Diego for a while. These were people that had been born deaf and had minimal, if any, communication skills and no formal education. They had family that brought them here after they, themselves, immigrated to the US from other parts of the world; places like Thailand, Vietnam, Colombia, Mexico, and Ethiopia. I consider being their teacher here in America as a sort of a coup d’état considering my earlier situation when I was the foreigner without a clue as to what was going on.

I am proudest for starting the category of Massage Therapy. I was not only its first Supervisor but, at the time there was no Alternative Health category, so it had to be added to make a place for Massage Therapy. I was also the first Human Anatomy Supervisor.

If you had three wishes, what would you wish for?

My three wishes are to end all wars, end all world hunger, and end all disease. If that ever happened we would probably overpopulate the world and that would make all three of those wishes impossible to attain as long as we all stayed on just this one planet. And so, since we haven’t started inhabiting Mars, yet, I have to take back all three wishes and choose another one, and only one. And that would have to be that we learn to share the Earth; not only sharing it with other human beings, but with all of life that has a home on this wet rock flying around a star in one of the 200 billion, or more, galaxies in this vast Universe. There may be enough room out there, but since we are all still here, let’s make the best of it.

Do you view the glass ‘half full’ or ‘half empty’?

I view it as half full. But you probably could have easily guessed that by now.

The most challenging thing is to figure out what the questioner is trying to learn. In other words, what is the question? I try to enter the mindset of the person who wrote it, and that means I try to guess the approximate age and level of knowledge or experience the person may have with the subject. I especially love the questions that children ask because they are usually from a perspective of either curiosity or just plain awe about the world around them.

What are you most passionate about in your life?

I am most passionate about my life. My definition of life is the period of time when a biological organism uses its will and intention to influence changes in its internal and external environments. So, life is about having opportunities to make changes.

Albert Einstein

What is your favorite quote and why?

“You should make things as simple as possible, but no simpler.” – Albert Einstein. After that it would have to be: “And don’t call me Shirley!” – Hollywood movie classic, Airplane.

Who is your inspiration in life?

My grandparents from the Hungarian village where I spent the first part of my life are the biggest inspiration for me. My grandmother was the village doctor, nurse, and midwife and my grandfather was the most skilled farmer, craftsman, and animal tender in their town. Everybody respected them both. My grandfather’s philosophy was to make friends and visit with everybody, but stay true to your own beliefs and ways while respecting others.

Where is one place in the world you would love to visit and why?

I would love to visit the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa because I would love to be a guest of the native San people or the Bushmen, as they are also known.

Do you have any special talents?

One of my proudest achievements is solo camping in the Cascade Mountains of Northern California where I spent three days and nights with no tent, no sleeping bag, no flashlight, no matches, and no modern camping equipment. All I carried was a knife and blanket. During those three glorious days I explored the local plants and wildlife. Those three days and nights are burned deeply into my memory.

I was going through some old Laurentian pencils and noticing that they used to have the most interesting names for the colours (Hollywood Cerise, Orchid Purple, Midnight Black etc.). There was one colour I couldn’t find and I asked on Answers. I didn’t get an answer, but it got me curious about the site. I looked at some of the questions and said “I know the answer to that!” and I was off.

Changes to the website mean that you have to go back and develop new procedures. This wastes time, and sometimes it is less than clear why the changes were made. As a Supervisor, the most annoying and challenging problem is that the people asking the questions often do not use proper spelling or grammar. In many cases the questioner could have easily received his answer if he had taken the time to phrase his question right. Unfortunately we are faced with a deluge of variant spellings and grammatically incorrect questions which have to be corrected.

Monopoly Man

What are your special interests, hobbies, or collections?

I have a collection of recorded performances of Shakespeare’s plays (including movie adaptations) with about 150 titles. But I am a sucker for collections: I have collections of playing cards with non-standard shapes or facecards and of unusual Monopoly games.

What are you most passionate about in your life?

Truth. Kindness. Fairness. Diversity. Tolerance.

What is your favorite quote and why?

“We’re actors; we’re the opposite of people” Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. I think that would work for anyone who has been an actor.

It’s Gralistair. My first name is Graham and my middle name is Alistair. So my username is a contraction of those two. My father to this day calls me Graham Alistair.

Where are you from and what makes this place special?

I was born in Chester, an old Roman fort city on the River Dee, in England and then raised in Preston, Lancashire. I was educated in London, but I have lived most of the last 13 years in Kansas City, Missouri. The people from the midwest in the United States are wonderful – and of course the barbecue is outstanding. The climate is very different from what I was used to in the UK.

I was researching a chemical question in connection with my job. I came across this site. Incidentally the answer was wrong, but I said so and contributed to the discussion and suggested an edit.

What enticed you to join our community?

There are two reasons: I was actually a contributor on a rival site, but found Answers.com to be the best and livliest site. The main reason though is my age and time of life. Although I will always be committed to lifelong learning and I truly believe I can learn something from everyone, at 56 years old, I want to give something back. I like answering questions and editing the answers of other people, so the whole community can gain in knowledge and benefit from my expertise and experience.

If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?

I would choose the American Bald Eagle. I love the USA, so it seems appropriate. And I believe in freedom, something this bird truly has. Flying like a bird is the ultimate in freedom.

I like to answer questions and edit. As a Supervisor, I have the added privilege of merging multiple similar questions and answers and then doing a heavy edit and clean up. I get credit for this of course, but many have contributed to the final outcome. Let us all remember, everything is possible as long as we are not worried about who gets the credit.

If you were inviting someone to join Answers.com, what reason would you give that person to become a part of our community?

The reasons to join are to be part of something good; to be part of the community; to learn; to contribute; and to help others.

Imperial College London

What life accomplishments are you proud of?

I am proud of getting a Master of Science degree with distinction in Engineering. I’m also proud that I received the prize for Student of the Year from Imperial College London, a top 25 university. Given my education and experience, I regularly receive invitations to speak around the world on technical subjects.

Last, but not least, I have flown in and out of, slept in, driven in, photographed the “Welcome to” sign, and visited the capital city of all 50 states in the United States.

None really, as I am not a huge contributor. I have only 80,000 contributions and there are many others that make far greater contributions than I do. Because I really am busy, I do not contribute as much as I would like to.

What is the craziest thing that has ever happened to you?

I was once trapped on the Brazilian side of Iguaçu Falls. We could not get back into Argentina because the Brazil/Argentine border was blocked by striking taxi drivers. To resolve the problem, my small tour party crossed illegally into Paraguay and navigated through the streets until arriving at the river. We then charmed our way – with the help of our tour guide – through naval border security, boarded a very small fishing boat, and crossed the river back to Argentina.

“If you bang your head against a brick wall it is not the wall that gets hurt.” I claim credit for inventing the quote, and it illustrates that it is best to move on rather than engaging in a futile exercise.

Who or what is your inspiration in life?

Without a shadow of a doubt, it is my father. He laboriously corrected my grammar and more, when I was a very young child. Therefore, if you lend to someone, you borrow from them.

Where is one place in the world you would love to visit and why?

I would like to visit Antarctica below the Antarctic circle. It is remote, barren and very few people on the planet have gone there.

Do you have any special talents?

Well, I do not like blowing my own trumpet and slapping my own back, but I can stand up at about 10 seconds notice in front of a large crowd of people and give a speech about almost anything. I love public speaking.